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Watching Jon Stewart the other night brilliantly satirizing American right-wingers’ laments about the poor exploiting social justice programs for a “free lunch,” I was disappointed that he failed to mention the greatest free lunch of them all.

Ironically, while “there’s no free lunch” is one of our favourite expressions, down through history most land, property and political power has been

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin

The fiscal cliff in the United States did not just endanger its own country’s economy but the world’s, including Canada’s heavily dependent one. But in the American problem lies, at least partially, a Canadian solution: an estate tax.

The inability for Democrats and Republicans to prevent the fiscal cliff and the current uncertainty relating to the world’s largest economy is threatening the fledgling global recovery.

Canada, a country whose economy is always extremely vulnerable to external crises, is now only more so.